In my original post on this topic, I wrote:
"Thus, the financial claims on foreign countries reported by US banks and
financial institutions alone is estimated for 2002 at $2.3 billion or
thereabouts."
That should be $2.3 "trillion", not billion. A slip of the pen.
Dutch-origin multinational corporations (such as Philips, Shell, Unilever,
Akzo-Nobel, DSM, ABN-Amro, Ahold etc. - the latest issue of "Fortune"
magazine provides a list of the Global 500 largest corporations) are among
the most "internationalized" in the world, in that they typically have more
employees, more assets, and more sales abroad, than inside the Netherlands
(Van Tulder, 1999). But this is not yet typical of the majority of the
world's MNCs.
Of all countries, the Netherlands (popn. 16.2 million) was the world's sixth
largest foreign investor in 2000. Half of Dutch foreign direct investment is
within the European Union, and a quarter of it in the USA (Van Hoesel and
Narula, 1999; Sparling 2002). Foreign equities are likewise owned mainly in
the EU (42%) and the USA (36%) and similarly bonds are owned mainly in EU
countries (76%) and the USA (15%). The Dutch own foreign securities mainly
in France and the UK (Sparling ibid.). Total Dutch external assets are
estimated at 1.2 trillion euro, approximately the same as foreign
liabilities. An overview of the Dutch international investment position to
2000 is provided at: http://www.dnb.nl/dnb/bin/doc/se2002m02_tcm8-14037.pdf
.
UNCTAD's estimated global FDI inflows, down by over 40% in 2001, fell by
another 21% in 2002 to $651 billion. Outflows were also down in 73 of 151
countries, according to UNCTAD. At $120 billion, United States outflows rose
by 15% from 2001, while EU outflows, at $394 billion, decreased by 13% last
year, and Japan´s, at $31 billion, decreased by 18%. FDI from developing
countries ($43 billion) dipped by $4 billion, but their share in world FDI
outflows remained almost the same, at 7%. However, FDI in Central and
Eastern Europe (CEE) climbed by $700 million to $4.2 billion, with the
Russian Federation the largest investor in the region.
http://www.unctad.org/Templates/webflyer.asp?docid=4022&intItemID=1465&lang=
1
J.